What if we spent dollars at home? - Letter to the Editor

Very rarely have I been inspired to write to this paper, and never so much as this time, in response to your staff writer Laurie Lounsbury's Hat Trick opinion (Oct. 18, 2003 Herald Times).

I'm not so much concerned whether she is or is not a born-again Christian, but more so in her "what if?" stuff. Her words: "What if, instead of spending hundreds of billions of dollars on two wars - one in Afghanistan and one in Iraq - we had spent that same amount of money in an effort to understand our enemies?"

I say: WHAT IF we spent that same amount of money here in the United States in an effort to understand OUR enemies, i.e. drug abuse, gang killing, youth suicides, and other rampant killers such as AIDS, cancers, diabetes, etc.?

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She states "What if we had gone to the countries who breed and harbor terrorists and we spent billions in economic development, job training, housing, medical aid, cultural exchange and education programs? … Do you really think a young man would willingly commit suicide at bin Laden's bidding if he had a good job, a nice house, a wife, kids and maybe every man's dream - a TV with his own remote control - to come home to? People don't choose to die young if they have good reasons to grow old."

I say: WHAT IF we spent that same amount of money for people in our nation, in our state, in OUR OWN COUNTY who don't have a good job, can't afford to own or rent a home, can't afford heat or electricity, who don't have a vehicle or even a phone? People who have no medical aid, job training or educational programs available? People who don't have a TV, let alone "their own remote control. Who knows, maybe there would be less terror, fewer senseless deaths, suicides and less "youth anger" right here at home, you think?

I may not be in full favor of what our president is doing with U.S. dollars, but I sure wouldn't want Ms. Lounsbury as my financial adviser either.